[wiseman]

As I have said before on the Fporum, I put my car in thre Autotrader for sales as the bride wants a Cayman(Me too kinda)................anyway, I get this Email from this guy asking a bunch of questions which were answered in the ad and needing some pics which were also in the ad. My response was just that.......look at the ad. So another Email comes and we get to price...........based on everything I have done.........and the economy..I thought $15K was a fair price. So I get up this morning and find the Email below. No way am I doing this..............but I thought I would share and get your opinions.

Greetings ,

Thank you very much for your mail..
PRICE ACCEPTED:

I have accepted your price and am ready to do business with you.

PAYMENT METHOD:
I am going to make out a total over draft check of $21,500 that will cover the cost of your vehicle and the shipping/pick-up.
Therefore,you are required to take the cost of your vehicle ($15,000), and send my agent the remaining balance ($ 5,500) for the shipping and the pick-up of the vehicle to me.

BALANCE OF PAYMENT:
The reason for the balance of the payment is to help the agent and the shipper offset the shipping and pick-up bills,paper work and any other necessary expenses that might occur during the process on this transaction.

REASON FOR THE CHECK AT THAT AMOUNT:
The check has already been made by my client before he traveled, on the previous car i wanted to buy for him but unfortunately,it had an accident on a day before the day my agent came to pick-up the car.....the business was later canceled and we come across your car.

PAYMENT INFORMATION NEEDED:
Therefore I need the following information for your payment to be delivered to you..

(1) Your FULL NAME ( that will be on the check )

(2) ADDRESS ( where the payment will be delivered.)

(3) TELEPHONE NUMBER (TO REACH YOU)

MY INFORMATION NAME Chris Russo
ADDRESS: 456 Farmstead Road
SE6
London

CLIENT INFORMATION NAME:Major George Cory..
ADDRESS: 140 Gloucester Road London
Sw7 4QH,GB
London
The check is going to be a cashiers check in US dollars.....


What do you all think?

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[flash]

SCAM!!!!

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[PorscheDude]

That scam is 10 years old.
Move on
forget about it

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[Carl968]

Definately a scam. I have a lots of items on Craigslist and I receive these kinds of scams about every other day. If it looks to good it's a scam. Just use your common sense and beware. The check will bounce and the car will be lost.

Carl

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[Scott Collins]

What a scam! So you are supposed to believe that you sell a car but instead of collecting the value of the car, you give them 5g's up front because Col. Mustard is on safari?

This makes me want to drop everything I am doing and make it my one and only mission in life to locate the offender and become an irresistible force.

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[wiseman]

Yup remember guys.........I told the puke No way this morning......but just wanted to share. Don't you think that this guy could be traced back by his Yahoo account?

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[Anchorman]

Why not tell him you'll be pleased to do the deal and ask him to send the cashier's check. Once that clears, you'll send the $5,000 and the car. Usually one of the next steps will be for them to ask for a piece of information (credit card, bank account) you don't want to disclose - and that's when the fun is over.

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[PorscheDude]

Have some fun and string him along.
Waste as much of his time as you can.
Tell him you have another buyer at $22k and ask him
if he wants to go any higher.
Tell him it needs new blinker fluid and if he's ok with that.

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[sstman]

Normally these things come in to my email box on a daily basis, and start with the "dear friend", or "my dearest beloved", I find it helps by reading them in a fake Afrikaans Accent, as a lot seem to come from various parts of the African continent, I have lost count the number of times I have been left "$100,00000.00" in bequests or lottery wins.... all they need is my bank details to confirm etc etc .... Some are absolutely brilliant!, especially the ones that link to a 'fake' BBC News web site to 'confirm' the story of the death of Prince Calumboo, of Zaire LOL!

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[Johannvb]

Blinker fluid...I have not replaced that in years. What's the part number? I also find that orange fluid is better than clear stuff, it seems to make the car run smoother.

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[Johannvb]

Akrikaans? I am Afrikaans, Imagine reading this on a US base porsche forum...makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! The world s truly getting smaller by the day.

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[Scott Collins]

Pat is on to something. Time is money to these guys, so maybe get him back. Let him know that you "changed your mind" and want to work it out. It would be beautiful to "turn it around" and end up with his cash. What movie am I thinking about?

(with the right about of care and feeding a scammer can become a bona fide pigeon. maybe the next best things since
NSX Nick!)

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[Cloud9...68]

I seem to remember hearing about web sites that specialize in tips on how to string these jerks along, really getting their hopes up, and wasting a ton of their time. Depends on your motivation level, I guess...

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[Joel968]

DO NOT string them along.... I good friend of mine tried this "just to have some fun" they went out of there way to screw with him. Phone calls at all hours of the day and night, massive emails and attempts at his identity. This is there job...... do not contact them again or listen to these fools..... the choice is yours.

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[Scott Collins]

Hate to say it, but Joel968 is probably right. Leave the justice to the professionals... At the same time, if enough people were to fight back against these individuals, who have names and faces somewhere, hiding cowardly in the dark, and most likely with criminal records, then if would be a heck of a lot harder for them. One question is, what does it really take to actually get one of these scammers, get him out into the daylight and be identified and prosecuted? I would definately go the distance if only for the opportunity to prevent people who can't afford to lose it all from getting scammed. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif[/img]


With a little search, I turned up this this website for the Internet Crime Complaint Center, along with this segment description. This sounds close to the scam we are discussing here.

http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

COUNTERFEIT CASHIER'S CHECK
The counterfeit cashier's check scheme targets individuals that use Internet classified advertisements to sell merchandise. Typically, an interested party located outside the United States contacts a seller. The seller is told that the buyer has an associate in the United States that owes him money. As such, he will have the associate send the seller a cashier's check for the amount owed to the buyer.

The amount of the cashier's check will be thousands of dollars more than the price of the merchandise and the seller is told the excess amount will be used to pay the shipping costs associated with getting the merchandise to his location. The seller is instructed to deposit the check, and as soon as it clears, to wire the excess funds back to the buyer or to another associate identified as a shipping agent. In most instances, the money is sent to locations in West Africa (Nigeria).

Because a cashier's check is used, a bank will typically release the funds immediately, or after a one or two day hold. Falsely believing the check has cleared, the seller wires the money as instructed.

In some cases, the buyer is able to convince the seller that some circumstance has arisen that necessitates the cancellation of the sale, and is successful in conning the victim into sending the remainder of the money. Shortly thereafter, the victim's bank notifies him that the check was fraudulent, and the bank is holding the victim responsible for the full amount of the check.

If you believe you may have fallen victim to this type of scam and wish to report it, please file a complaint with us.

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[wiseman]

After I told him the only way I would sell the car would be for him to have his "agent" bring me a bank check drawn from a Florida bank like Wachovia for the selling price. How he got the car to his client was his problem. The Email he is using is shown below. Heres what he wrote back....



Hello,
Thanks for the mails and i want to inform you that if payment is to be made out to you it is going to consist your payment and the shipping fee.

I responded on my phone........."You must think I'm stupid. Go buy someone elses car A-hole".

Haven't heard a word since.

---
From: Wise, Ryan
Subject: RE: payment arrangement/pickup info
To: "Dennis Farra" <dennis.farra39@yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, December 11, 2009, 12:48 PM

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[968TDG]

I don't think I would ever forgive myself for falling for something so evil. I also have the personality that makes me want to hunt them down and destroy their lives, but I also know I have better things to do than wind myself up, like windsurf. Now I just need to find the discontinued Thule 968 fit kit for my roof rack to do it in style.

-Phil

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[wiseman]

The interseting thing to me is that the guy has a Yahoo account, ficticious or not.........sokmebody is paying Yahoo for that account.............don't you think some fraud cops could hunt this guy down?

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[Joel968]

This is very big business.

www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/orgcrime/africancrim.htm

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